Allied Litho Makes Its Next Press Move with manroland

KANSAS CITY, MO—June 8, 2011—For the second time in less than three years, Allied Litho, one of the Midwest’s premier package printers, has purchased a manroland Roland 900 six-color press with UV coater—this time the 56" version. The company has been experiencing rapid growth with the purchase of a 73" Roland 900 XXL six-color press with UV coater 30 months ago. Now the company is looking to bolster its productivity and profitability with the addition of a similarly versatile press.

Tim Heier, Allied Litho’s CEO, understands that the business of selecting a printing press can be like a chess game. “You just hope you make the right moves, because there have been an awful lot of people who thought they made the right move and didn’t. We believe we have and we like where we are positioned in the industry right now.”

In 2008, when Allied was looking to add more capacity, the final choice boiled down to a either a 64" or a 73" press. “We thought the 73" press would give us more bang for the buck. Even though we knew the consumables would be more expensive, we decided to take a chance. As a result, we have done quite a bit of work that would not fit on a 64". It was a roll of the dice that came out well for us.”

“We are currently operating that Roland 900 XXL press 24 hours a day, six days a week and looking to add a couple more shifts. This has forced us to begin looking for a little sister to the XXL press to increase our capacity.”

Heier said that the new addition is capable of performing 70 percent of the work that is currently being done on the Roland 900 XXL and will nearly double Allied Litho’s capacity. This should stimulate further growth, since a number of customers have expressed a willingness to entrust the company with more work but are uneasy because the company is pushing a huge volume of work through a single press.